Before the Sunset (Cottonwood Cove, #4)(60)

“Well, you should have thought of that before you did it. This is just like tip-of-the-penis-gate. You need to think before you act.” Brinkley poked me in the chest again.

“All I do is fucking think about it, okay? This wasn’t something I took lightly. I wouldn’t have gone there with her if it wasn’t—I don’t know…” I hissed, trying to keep my voice low. “It’s just more, okay?”

“Finny.” Georgia wrapped her arms around me. “You love her, don’t you?”

“I’ve always loved her, so I don’t know how to tell what it means. But yeah, I’ve never felt this before.”

“Do you see this as the long game?” Brinkley asked.

“Listen, she still has Carl in the picture. He’s single again. She didn’t want to end things with me early, so maybe that’s a good sign. But at the same time, I’m fucking terrified. I don’t know if I’m any good at this. What if I push for it and then I fuck it up?”

“Then we’ll have to kill you,” Brinkley said, her voice void of all humor before she barked out a laugh.

The door whipped open and in waddled a very pregnant Dylan. “Hey, what is the rule we have about family meetings?”

“Keep the talk short?” Cage asked, and she chuckled.

“If one goes, we all go. I’m offended that you’ve all disappeared and didn’t invite me.”

“Well, no one here was actually invited,” I said. “They just keep coming in.”

Dylan pressed about what was going on, and Georgia and Brinkley took turns bringing her up to speed, and I took Cage’s beer from his hand and chugged it.

“We need to get back out there. Everyone is going to notice we’re gone.” I made an attempt at the door, and this time it was Dylan who pinched me.

“Don’t you dare leave before I give you my two cents,” she said.

“Aren’t pregnant women supposed to be sweet?” Cage asked over his laughter.

“Yeah, you try having a giant human living inside you and then push him out of your penis and tell me if you’d be sweet.” She raised a brow, and now the entire closet erupted in laughter.

“Okay, let’s hear your two cents, Dilly,” Hugh said as he winked at her.

“You’re worrying about the wrong things. I get it. She knows what she wants—marriage, babies, all that stuff. And you’ve never thought about it because you’ve never been in love.” She smiled and raised a brow. “I was very similar, Finny. My sisters all knew what they wanted. I’d never imagined my future that way. But here’s the thing—you don’t have to have it all figured out. Because when you really love someone, there’s no running from it. Look at me. I’ve got a watermelon growing in my belly. Who’d have ever thought I’d be pregnant right now?”

“But this is Reese,” Brinkley whispered. “She’s family. You need to figure it out before you promise her the world, because if you hurt her, it’s going to cause a shit storm in this family and in hers.”

“And let’s not forget Dr. Pricknuts. She had planned to marry the dude, and now he’s single and wants her back. How do we know she isn’t going to crush Finny’s heart?” Cage said with a wicked grin on his face.

“Why the fuck are you smiling when discussing my heartache?”

“Just never thought I’d see the day that you’d be someone’s little bitch.” He barked out a laugh.

“Why does no one pinch him?” I grumped, just as a knock on the door had us all going silent.

Dylan pushed it open, and Wolf peeked his head in. “Dinner’s ready, and everyone’s looking for you.”

“How’d you know where we were?” my cousin purred to her husband.

“I’ve always got my eyes on you, Minx.”

“Good answer. Take some lessons, Finny,” Dylan teased as we all piled out of the closet.

“Hey,” Hugh said, just before I stepped out. We were the last two in there. “I doubted myself, too. But what I learned is, just because you’ve never done it before, doesn’t mean you can’t. It just means that you haven’t met someone worth going out on a limb for. Maybe you’ve been single because you’d already met the one you were meant to be with. You just didn’t know it. She’d been there the whole time.”

I nodded. I’d thought that many times over the last few weeks. I clapped him on the shoulder, and we stepped out, hearing all the chatter coming from the dining room.

Reese was deep in conversation with Lila and Olivia, and my mom and Jenny Murphy were refilling wine glasses, while my father and Grant had just finished carving two turkeys and were setting the platters on each end of the table.

Everyone made their way to the dining room, and we found our seats. I was between Reese and Cage. We passed around the sides and filled our plates while we all chatted. Once we had piles of delicious food on our plates, my father raised his water glass, and we all did the same. Dylan had water, Gracie had chocolate milk, and the rest of us had wine or beer in our glasses.

“Another year to be thankful for good food, great friends, and my beautiful family. Thanks for hosting, Georgia and Maddox. Thank you to the Murphys for being here with us. Let’s all take a minute to think about all the good in our lives,” my father said, and Cage leaned close to my ear.